'Income Mutuality'

'Hey! I've got an idea for you
21st Century Americans!'

You are going to hear a lot tonight about 'income inequality' in President Obama's 5th State of the Union Address.

If you do the drinking games when you watch the SOTU, drink something every time you hear the words 'income inequality'; 'our policies are working' or 'we need to create more 'jobs'!' You'll sleep soundly tonight.

We don't dispute the fact that there are a lot of people who have made a whole heckuva lot of money not only during the Obama Administration but over the course of their lifetimes. Some people just know how to find and fund opportunities that yield tremendous wealth to them and their stockholders.

We also don't dispute the fact that millions of people are struggling today to make ends meet. Close to 20 million people have either dropped out of the workforce or are either under-employed or unemployed, a number that has not appreciably come down since the initial stages of the financial meltdown in 2009.

What we do take issue with, however, is how the issue of 'income inequality' has become the bloody flag of President Obama even though he has now had 5 straight years of his policies running this country which has led to much of this 'income inequality' in the first place!'

What we would welcome, and which would totally put us into shock, would be if the President said these words tonight:

'Let me be perfectly clear. My policies...have failed the American people. I am asking Congress to repeal all of the increased rules and regulations I have asked for and which were passed in 2009-2010. I also now recognize that Obamacare has almost completely distorted the American health market in ways I never could have envisioned or understood when we passed it in 2010 and needs to be replaced as well.'

We think the stock market would roar upward for the rest of this year and next. Businesses nationwide would throw caution to the wind and start hiring people left and right.  Businesspeople could finally be sure they could invest and move ahead without the federal government making life difficult for them and then taking a far greater share of their profits in taxes and side costs such as Obamacare.

What we think is important to think about, however, is not about just the 'income inequality' part of the equation in America today. Income inequality has been part of the capitalistic system since the ancient days.

You want to see 'real' income inequality'? Go to most any dictatorship in the world or communist system where the very elites get all the money and benefits of the system and leave hardly anything for the rest of the populations. Why, in many nations around the world, there is no middle-income class of people at all!

We think it is time to consider the importance of the free enterprise system to us all. We choose to call it 'Income Mutuality'.

We think this is a very important concept that is not being taught or recognized in America lately. There is a profound and deep symbiotic relationship between the entrepreneur; the investor and funder; the executive management team and the employee of any successful company or corporation.

A good look at our own American history would be a good place to start. Read this from Bill Bryson's book, 'Made in America':

In 1850, America's 23 million people had a cumulative wealth of $7.1 billion. Fifty years later, the population had tripled to 76 million, but the wealth has increased thirteenfold to $94.3 billion. In 1894, the United States displaced Britain as the world's leading manufacturer (after only a century of existence).

By 1914, it was the world's leading producer of coal, natural gas, oil, copper, iron ore, and silver and its factories were producing more goods than those of Britain, Germany and France together.

Within 30 years of President Garfield's death, one-fourth of the world's wealth was in American's hands.

For the average American, progress was not, in the words of Henry Steele Commager, 'a philosophical idea but a commonplace of experience....Nothing in all history had ever succeeded like America, and every American knew it.' 

How did they know it? Because they were working in jobs in exciting new industries that helped raise and support their families instead of working manual labor on farms from sun-up to sundown. For a few of them, they maybe even had some stock in such industries and and became more wealthy as brilliant innovators such as Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb and illuminated the entire nation and world.

These workers were dependent on the enterprise and creativity of the innovators and entrepreneurs such as Mr. Edison to come up with new products that have benefited not only us all but all of mankind. Entrepreneurs and innovators such as Mr. Edison were dependent on the work labor of his employees because he simply could not have made all of those light bulbs all by himself, now could he?

We think we should start talking about the 'Income Mutuality' of our nation and stop all of this class warfare in which President Obama takes glory and refuge.

The best way to address the 'inequality' any of us sees in America today is to support tried-and-true policies that free up the free enterprise system and activates the 'animal spirits' that Adam Smith talked about back into play in the nation's marketplace. Allowing the private sector to create 20 million full-time jobs would go a long way towards solving a multitude of problems we face in the United States, would you have to agree?

We don't think President Obama's policies have worked to accomplish that goal. Do you? Such to the degree that you are willing to wait another year or 2 years or 3 years until he leaves office in 2017 and 'give his policies just a little more time to work!'?

If you have been, or still are, among the 20 million people now not in full-time rewarding work, would you be willing to make that bet?  We don't think so.

'Income Mutuality'. We all have a stake in each other's success. Let's just hope your best friend, close neighbor or cherished family member has a great idea swirling around in his or her head that becomes wildly financially successful. And you have the guts to go to work with him or her on the ground floor of the next Microsoft.

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